US election night: Exit polls timing and tricks you need to know today
Exit polls start showing results at 5pm ET on this crucial election day‚ but early numbers need careful interpretation. The complex polling system combines in-person‚ mail-in‚ and early voting data
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are keeping close watch on todays election results‚ with first exit-poll data coming at 5pm ET (a key time-point that everyoneʼs waiting for)
The exit-poll system works in a three-fold way: it checks in-person voting at hundreds of poll-sites‚ early-voting numbers and mail-in ballots (which are double-checked through phone-calls emails and texts)
The survey has about 20 questions that look into voting choices and voter info like:
- Age and gender stats
- Race background
- Reasons for picking candidates
- Voting method used
News teams cant share any poll-data before 5pm ET; they also need to wait for all poll-sites in a state to close before making winner calls. The first batch of exit-poll info isnt always right — it needs some fact-checking because morning voters (who tend to be over-50 and pro-Republican) dont show the full picture
Looking back at past results shows why we should be careful: the 2016 exit-polls said Trump got most white-women votes but real numbers from Pew Research showed its was just 47% — thats a big difference that changed how people saw the election results
The exit-poll data gets fixed many times during election night as more info comes in; its like putting together a puzzle where each new piece makes the picture more clear. The final numbers go through some math-checking that can really change what we thought we knew
